


parameter and trajectory

by sometimesheroesdie



Series: another level of salvation [4]
Category: DARLING In The FRANXX (Anime)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Mild Blood, Swearing, alpha is more cocky and swears a lot more compared to canon, but he's also a soft boi, but let's chalk that up to his klaxo blood making him so deranged, episode 23 spoilers a little??? it's very loosely similar, hiro's more unhinged than i think he would be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 16:48:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15123722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometimesheroesdie/pseuds/sometimesheroesdie
Summary: and so he shoots into the night-sky galaxy, a bullet without trajectory, burning up with love without parameters.[ in which hiro tears through the stars to get to his darling. ]





	parameter and trajectory

**Author's Note:**

> heyhey!! damn, i've been gone for so long, hahaha. i just didn't have much energy or inspiration to write, and i don't think i'll be posting as often as last time for a long while. i'm sorry! maybe if i suddenly have a whole lot of muse, but my next hirotwo shot will be released fairly later. ;-;
> 
> okay so about the reason i wrote this: i had the idea for it after i watched episode 22, so i decided to write a possible episode 23! i was pretty shook when alpha and hiro had a similar interaction in the anime lol. other than that, it's really quite different. 
> 
> enjoy!! :)

His thin frame is bent over, heavy gasps racking his body. Sickness penetrates his bones, something dark and _other_ pushing through his veins. So unlike the taste of Zero Two’s strength flowing into him, sweet sunlight and joy; now, he only wants to vomit as the oily blackness slides through his bloodstream as the two boys connect through the mech.

Alpha huffs. “Tired already, 016?”

Hiro snarls. “Shut up.” His hands tremble, tighten. “I’m not going to give up so easily.”

“Your emotions will kill you one day, 016. Though I suppose it is what has saved you time and time again.” There is resignation in the blonde boy’s voice. “You love Iota very much, don’t you?”

“Her name is Zero Two,” he whispers through his blood-filled mouth. “I . . . adore her. She’s my wings.”

Alpha doesn’t say anything else. Goro’s voice filters through the intercoms. “Hiro, are you alright?”

He shakes the hair out of his eyes. “I’m fine. Let’s go.” He grits his teeth, bloody fangs poking at his lower lip. Another reminder, another vestige of the memory he’s trying so hard to protect. Hiro spits out the blood, says, “Goro. I’ll be fine. Really.”

“I’m not too sure about that . . . call out if you need help, alright? Nine Alpha, don’t do anything reckless.” Goro’s gentle tone turns cold, stern. The red-suited boy laughs. “Don’t worry, I won’t suck the life out of this poor boy. I’ll leave that to Iota.”

“Shut your mouth.” Ichigo’s Franxx face pops into view. “We’re heading out now.”

Alpha shifts a little, turning off the screens. “Get yourself together, 016. We’re going to get her. Endure for a little more.”

“Yeah." Hiro says, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. Then, softer, “Thanks.”

The blonde boy laughs, his helm snapping on. “Promise that you won’t kill me, and I’ll promise I won’t try to. I want to live.” Where the indifference and arrogance was, there’s now a childlike hope in his voice, wonder and regret and _hope_ , soft and foreign to Hiro’s ears. “There are graves I still have to visit.”

“We’ll all come back,” he says, something like guilt tinging his tongue, something like steely determination keeping his fingers steady. “There’s a life I have to live out with Zero Two.”

“Well, I wish the two of you every happiness,” Alpha says. Gentle, unfamiliar to Hiro. Then, bloodthirsty glee lacing his words, “Let’s go. We have a world to save.”

-

Orange horns flare on Alpha’s helm as he slashes through the purple entities with a fury free of its leash. Hiro’s body is braced, shoulders bent forward, gasps shaking his lungs. His very bones ache, and he feels the sickness rolling through his blood with every wheezing exhale.

“We're not stopping now.” Alpha’s voice is cold, unforgiving, still carrying a shade of mania from his killing. “We have to get Zero Two. Hear me, 016? It won’t stop until we kill them all.”

_It hurts, right? But it won’t end till we kill that monster._

Hiro bares his teeth, grips the handles tighter. Zero Two is out there, fighting with every shred of her soul. He can’t just idle here. Alpha calls, a grin in his voice: “ _That's_ more like it!” The magma-energy lance slices into the creature.

“Strelizia’s in sight! Clear a path for Hiro!” Ichigo shouts through the comms. Tears glister on his lashes. Unknown strength courses through his veins, sunshine and unfiltered joy, something akin to the taste of Zero Two’s kiss. A battle cry looses from his lips and he drives the mech forward, with a force that stuns even Alpha.

Monster after monster after monster. Their blood splatters the mech but none of them notice; Alpha too deranged in the bloodshed, Hiro's eyes only trained on his darling.

_I’ll keep my promise._

Ichigo yells something but Hiro can’t hear, can’t see, can’t think. There is only the whistle of blade through rock-hard skin; there is only the white and red mech. There is only the animalistic, feral instinct to fight alongside her; the savage, primal desire to see her again; the senseless, reckless need to keep his end of their promise.

_I’ll come save you._

His squad cries out, arms reaching out. They slam headfirst into Strelizia and Alpha screams, human pain in the broken sound. But _damn_ it, Hiro can’t bring himself to care, as he swings the lance at the purple entities affixed onto Strelizia’s face.

_I’ll fight with you._

The Franxx deactivates as he climbs out of his seat, legs trembling violently. It seizes up, bolts grinding in their sockets. The mech drifts lazily, away from Strelizia.

 _Zero Two._ Alpha falls onto the floor, curled up. _Zero Two._ “What the hell are you doing,” Alpha whispers, raspy. Blood runs from his forehead, his pale green eyes flat. “You’re going to kill us. You’re going to die.”

_Zero . . . Two._

Hiro collapses, legs unable to take his weight. Heaving coughs break from his throat; his blood spills onto the cold metal floor. Distantly, he hears Goro yelling through the comms, Delphinium’s hands shaking their Franxx. His fangs stab at his mouth. A dull pain but a relic of the girl with the horns who needs him, whom he needs.

_Zero Two._

“You’re going to die,” Alpha chokes out again, spitting. “Why are you so willing to die, Hiro? What drives you? Where do you draw your strength?”

“I love her,” he whispers. “That’s all.”

“Lucky bitch,” Alpha gasps, and coughs on blood. He reaches out and Hiro flinches, but the blonde boy merely grasps his wrist. “Bring her home. Don’t die before you do.”

He trembles, he shakes. “I'll see her under the cherry blossoms again.” He braces himself on his knees, he falls again. “I'll see her smile again." He places his hands flat against the searing cold metal, he pants and sobs and screams. “ _I’ll see her again._ ”

He gets up, he falls, he stands.

-

The helm built into his suit slides open and clicks shut over his face, brushing lightly against his horns. Alpha grins, forcing himself up. “I’ll see you again. And beat your ass up for trying to kill me.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Hiro says, and steps out into outer space.

Strelizia looms over him, its great silhouette casting shadows over his tiny human body. Delphinium and Chlorophytum staying behind to protect their backline and Argentea reaches out for him.

He shakes his head at Miku and Zorome, as if to say _it’ll be alright_. It’s going to be okay, reunited with his darling at long last.

 _It’s going to be okay, Zero Two_ , he thinks, and falls into the embrace of the stars.

-

And so he shoots into the night-sky galaxy, a meteor, a comet, a fallen star, a bullet without trajectory, burning up with love without parameters.

-

Familiarity washes into his veins when he wakes up. This dream has happened before, under a tree, in the snow, cherry blossoms drifting downward. This time, Hiro floats in space, nothingness and oblivion and silence, stars and planets and galaxies.

“ _Darling_.” A familiar whisper.

It’s strange that tears still sear his eyes, when they’ve already done this. He’s met her in between their consciousnesses before; he’s woken up with a broken heart already. Maybe it’s the phantom pain that brings the tears. Maybe it’s the longing and the relief, maybe the anger and the sadness.

“Are we going to keep meeting each other like this? In our minds?” he whispers. “When can I see you for real?”

“Soon,” she says, silver limning her fully-red eyes. “I promise, darling.”

“Promise me we’ll get back to earth together. Please.”

Her body presses into his, soft curves into hard edges. Her skin sparkles, dusted with stars. His fingers are stained with her stardust as they wrap around her arms, pulling her close. Her horns reach out, pressing into his shoulder, and he brushes a kiss to the crimson matter. “I promise. I’m sorry I couldn’t get to you sooner. I’m . . . I’m sorry.”

Their fingers intertwine, and memory floods him, the world seen through Zero Two’s eyes - a bleak, dark nothing, purple entities ripping Strelizia apart, and Zero Two, screaming with a voice that never gets hoarse, crying out her love and her pain and her worry and her longing and all her apologies, too many apologies for something she could never control anyway. Aching, Hiro tucks her pink tresses behind her ear. _I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Zero Two._

“Hey, darling,” she whispers, the memories draining away. “Do you love me?”

It’s strange that she asks, because questioning that has become inconsequential, useless, nothing, when they’ve reached this point of the game, this chapter of their story. It’s a truth set in stone, written in dripping ink, carved into their skin as battle scars. They’ve already told each other their answer, in the language of whispered nothings and sweet kisses and hot breath. But he’ll tell her again, and again and again, every single night they have after this.

“I do,” he replies, and feels her fingers run down his bare sides, coming to rest at his hips. Her other hand touches his lengthened blue horns, slides down to brush against the lashes veiling solid blue eyes. “I love you.”

“Really?” Her voice slows, uncertain and hesitant. “Darling, I made you into a monster like me. I dragged you into my life and brought you into so much danger. And here we are, unsure if we’ll live or die. Why do you . . . ?”

None of that matters anymore, Hiro wants to say. They’ve changed so much the line between human and monster has blurred; they’ve been through so much it doesn’t even matter any more.

“I do,” he whispers again, and touches her cheek, tips her head up so their lips are a breath apart. “My heart and soul are yours, as yours is mine. We are one, Zero Two.”

Zero Two grins, wider and brighter and happier than he’s ever seen, red eyes silvery with tears. “Okay,” she whispers. “Darling, let’s take flight one last time. With our wings.”

“With our wings,” he echoes with a gentle smile, and kisses her.

Their souls combine, power merging. It’s familiar, this amalgam of their hearts - he feels every thought that rushes through her mind, he tastes her emotion and feeling. Wings burst out, one on each of their bodies, and they hold fast onto each other and soar.

He remembers the blinding light that swallows them whole. Back then it was the fire of a merciless angel, coming to destroy them, but now it is gentle flame. Light to shine on them, to illuminate the path home.

-

Slowly, Hiro becomes aware of his surroundings. A whirring fan, the steady beep of machines, the quiet murmur of voices further away. Fingers intertwined with his own.

Then come memories. They’re distant, fainter, but he still remembers the touch of a warm mouth against his, connecting to a Franxx, power flooding his veins, buckling under the weight of the world on his shoulders and falling unconscious.

And a girl. A pink haired girl. A pink haired girl with horns and red eyes and a smile to rival the moon, the stars.

“ _Zero Two_ ,” he whispers, eyes flying open, “Zero Two, Zero Two, Zero Two . . . ”

Next to him on the wide bed lays a pink haired girl, holding his hand, lashes fluttering and breathing even. A tiny pair of red horns poking through her bangs.

His free hand comes up to his mouth and stops his sob. The wires and needles rip off his arm with the sudden motion. Tears spill from his eyes. It's her. _This_ is the girl Hiro sacrificed so much for, loved so hard, the girl he would not let go.

The girl he’s been looking for.

Her lashes whisper and open to reveal sleepy blue eyes and red pupils. “Hey,” she says quietly, a tired smile on her face.

“Zero Two . . . ”

“My . . . my darling.” She leans into his neck, exhaling lightly against his shoulder, where his sleeve slipped off. “I missed you, darling. I missed you so, so much. It broke my heart into pieces.”

“I missed you, Zero Two,” whispers Hiro. “You’re here now. You’re . . . with me.”

She shifts closer, pressing into his body. She’s warm, so warm, in the way fever dreams can’t replicate. Her hair tickles his cheeks and her hands wrap behind his back and Hiro runs his hand down her waist, over and over again. “I am. I'm with you.” A quiet sob breaks from her throat and he strokes her hair, her back. “I’m with you, don’t cry, darling.”

“You’re the one crying,” he sobs, laughing brokenly. Zero Two giggles, choked, embracing him tighter.

After they calm down and the tears stop flowing, she pushes his bangs away and brushes his horns with her fingertips. She bumps her forehead against his. “I love you,” she whispers.

He smiles. “I love you too.”

A simple declaration, carrying oceans of emotion. Waves crash and roll over their heads but Hiro’s okay with drowning, holding onto her hand. His lips seek hers, their breath held between the seam of their mouths, and there’s a promise in the long kiss. A promise, an invitation, a whisper of the life they will have together.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you!! do leave feedback or a comment - it really brightens my day and helps me write better!!
> 
> also, i'm accepting prompts!! i've hit a slight writer's block where i can't really think of anything to write, so drop a prompt in the comments or on my tumblr, [here](https://sometimesheroesdie.tumblr.com)!


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